FALL RIVER: The frustration that childcare operators across N.S. are experiencing during the current COVID19 shutdown is evident in one line from a letter sent to the province and media outlets by the owners of Mrs. Robinson’s Childcare Centre in Fall River.
“If we are essential, why are we being treated with such disrespect and disregard that we cannot even get an update or a timeline from them?” asks Molly Rogers and Lindsay Awalt in the letter.
Both say they are in a dire situation with their business and may be forced to close, meaning the one child they do have whose parents are deemed essential will have no place to go. The other children they have their parents are able to work from home, so their children are not attending, however they have been mandated to remain open by the government.
“Even though we remain open for Essential Childcare, we are not allowed to charge parents monthly fees, and are not permitted to fill their child/children’s spot,” said Rogers and Awalt. “We have been told that we cannot close in order to lower operating costs, or lay off staff, or else we jeopardize our provincial funding that is already in place.”
She noted that the provincial funding that privately owned childcare centres receive is the bare minimum for topping up staff wages to meet the wage floor and is meant to be used for operational costs.
“By no means does this funding produce a revenue or make owning a childcare centre a profitable endeavour,” Rogers said.
She and Awalt bought the childcare centre in June 2020 and have been operating under strict COVID-19 protocols since the re-opening of childcare centres in the province on June 15, 2020.
“We have struggled to make a profit of any kind since June of last year and we are currently sitting on exactly $.46 cents in our business bank accounts and are not able to pay ourselves a wage on pay day, May 14,” said Rogers.
She said Mrs. Robinson’s will begin operating at a loss beginning next week.
“We have one employee whom we will not be able to retain, and one family who is in need of essential care and will be looking for a new place to send their child if we do not receive the promised funding before May 17,” said Rogers.
She said childcare centres across the province are desperate.
“We are overlooked and undervalued and we are keeping this province running by remaining open and taking care of the children of essential workers,” continued Rogers, “yet many of us are struggling financially at the hands of the Liberal government and Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.”
Rogers said many of her and her fellow childcare emails and phone calls have been ignored and np timeline or update has been provided since May 3.
“We want to know where the money is. We want to know what they have been doing,” she said in the letter. “They have all the information they need in order to give us a lump sum of money to keep us afloat while they work out whatever kinks they have run into due to poor planning and lack of compassion for the childcare centres in this province.”
